A review by paul_cornelius
Just the Way it Is by James Hadley Chase

4.0

This is the second novel Chase originally published under the pseudonym Raymond Marshall. And it's a major improvement over the first one, Lady, Here's Your Wreath. Much smoother dialog. A complicated plot, like Lady, Here's Your Wreath, it's built around a story concerning corporate bonds, it nonetheless doesn't jerk and stumble like that one. It had a Raymond Chandler feel to it. Also, not as bloody or vivid as his earlier and later novels are. And it does take a little time to get going. Once more, in this book, JHC returns to confusing the reader a bit at the beginning, as he did with his very first novel, No Orchids for Miss Blandish. That is, he leaves a little unclear as to whom he intends to make the hero of the story. You think it's to be Peter Cullen, perhaps. But it quickly settles on Harry Duke. But deception is the style and intent of the book. And that plays out nicely at the end, when the ultimate villain, Spader, is finally identified.